CURRICULUM

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Our Curriculum

Our curriculum is at the heart of our provision and is informed by these guiding principles:

Inspiration and creativity: we develop our schemes of learning so that they are as interesting and as motivational for students as possible

Stretch and challenge: there are different pathways that offer additional challenge or support, as appropriate, to different groups of pupils

Choice: we believe that students thrive when they have a combination of courses that they find challenging and interesting

Progression: the curriculum is designed so it “secures good progression” to sixth form and from the sixth form to employment or university.

From Years 7 - 11, the curriculum studied by students is academic, broad and balanced, with students specialising to some extent in Year 9 and further when they join the Sixth Form in Year 12. As a large school, we are able to offer a significant range of courses and are wholly committed to supporting all subject areas. From September 2017, students will make their Options choices in Year 8. [Read more]

In addition to considerable strengths in the core subjects of English, maths and Science, we have flourishing Arts and Technology departments, strong Physical Education and excellent Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences provision. The College has a particular identity as being at the forefront of Computing education and digital literacy is a key part of our curriculum. We promote the E-Bacc route at GCSE, meaning that the majority of students will include either History or Geography and a Modern Foreign Language in their GCSE option choices. [Read about our Sixth Form curriculum]

Our Wider Curriculum:

A further element of the curriculum for Years 7-13 is the Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education which is delivered through discrete lessons and a wide-ranging assembly and tutor time programme. This is carefully tailored to particular year groups and supporting students with their personal development and welfare, including careers education, advice, information and guidance. Our curriculum is further developed by Deep Learning Days, where the usual timetable is suspended and students of all year groups benefit from an enriching programme of activities and events.

We are currently in the process of supporting students to make their option choices in both year 8 and year 9. The options assembly presentations and the options booklets for each year group are available below.